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Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000103 Fungal Genom Biol ISSN: 2165-8056 FGB, an open access journal Open Access Research Article Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genom Biol 2011, 1:1 DOI: 10.4172/2165-8056.1000103 A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR, ITS) and bio-control efficacy of Trichoderma species Muthu Kumar A 1 * and Pratibha Sharma 2 1 Wood Biodegradation Division, Institute of Wood Science & Technology, Bangalore, India– 560003 2 Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi, India- 1100012 *Corresponding author: Muthu Kumar, Wood Biodegradation Division, Institute of Wood Science & Technology, Bangalore, India– 560003, E-mail: muthu_iari893@ rediffmail.com Received October 27, 2011; Accepted November 23, 2011; Published December 06, 2011 Citation: Muthu Kumar A, Sharma P (2011) A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR, ITS) and bio-control efficacy of Trichoderma species. Fungal Genom Biol 1:103. doi:10.4172/2165-8056.1000103 Copyright: © 2011 Muthu Kumar A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Twelve isolates of Trichoderma harzianum and Trichoderma viride were assessed for their mycoparasitic effect on phytopathogens Pythium aphanidermatum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Though T. harzianum isolates were more aggressive than T. viride isolates, the percent inhibitory effect among T. harzianum isolates did not vary much (80% to 86%). The inhibitory effect of T. viride isolates ranged from 50% to 80%; however, TvChen, Tv4, and TvNir were distinguishable from other T.viride isolates in exhibiting higher degree of antagonism. The dataset generated through molecular markers (RAPD and ISSR) showed a comparable output grouping the isolates Tv4, TvChen and TvNir in one cluster and all T. harzianum isolates in another cluster. Multiple nucleotide alignment of ITS 1 and ITS 2 region produced 100% homology among T. harzianum isolates whilst the nucleotide substitution at 62 nd and 150 th position of ITS 1 region and 27 th and 40 th position of ITS 2 region differentiated Tv4, TvChen and TvNir from other T. viride isolates. Genetic assessment could not establish substantial disparity among T. harzianum isolates which was comparable with its antagonism. The genetic distinctness of Tv4, TvChen and TvNir isolates authenticated their higher degree of antagonism. It is obvious from the present study that genetic diversity analysis had a positive correlation with the antagonistic ability of Trichoderma isolates. Keywords: Trichoderma; Antagonism; Molecular characters; RAPD; ISSR; ITS. Introduction Plant disease epidemics have created an ecologically unbalanced system in modern agriculture. Deterrence of such epidemics for the most part achieved through use of chemical fungicides which have greater repercussion on environment and human health. Also progressive confrontation in a midst of pathogen resistance to accessible chemical plant protectants has engrossed the need of alternative methods of disease control. Fungi of the genus Trichoderma are important biocontrol agents of several soil borne phytopathogens. e Trichoderma species serves as a potential alternative to chemical control measure and growing pathogen resistance crop cultivars. is may be attributable to their diverse metabolic capability and aggressively competitive nature [1,2]. Trichoderma use different mechanism for control of phytopathogens which includes mycoparasitism, out compete pathogenic fungi for nutrients, secretion for antibiotics and fungal cell wall degrading enzymes [3,4]. Trichoderma sp. includes a plethora of strains which differ in their innocuousness and effectiveness as biocontrol agents. Furthermore it is difficult to predict the degree of synergism and the behavior of a biocontrol agent in a natural pathosystem. e molecular technique like Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) developed by Williams et al. [5] has been used for genetic and taxonomic studies for several fungi including Trichoderma sp. [6,7]. Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) have been used as another effective method to characterize genetic variability. Since the evolutionary rate within ISSR is considerably higher than other types of DNA, the likelihood of finding polymorphism is greater compared to RAPD [8]. e Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region is perhaps the most widely sequenced DNA region in fungi. It has typically been most useful for molecular systematic study at species level, and even within species [9-12]. Kindermann et al. [13] attempted a first phylogenetic analysis of the whole genus of Trichoderma using sequence analysis of the ITS1 region of rDNA. us the present study was to characterize the cryptic species of Trichoderma associated with biological control and to establish the relation between bioefficacy and molecular characters existed if any. Materials and Methods Isolation and identification of Trichoderma Soil samples were collected from various experimental fields of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa, New Delhi. A total no. of twelve isolates of Trichoderma species was isolated and identified in specific selective medium. e identification of Trichoderma isolates were confirmed and deposited in Indian Type Culture Collection (ITCC), IARI, Pusa, New Delhi. Confrontation assays in vitro In vitro confrontations were studied by performing dual culture technique described by Dennis and Webster [14] was used to test the antagonistic ability of Trichoderma isolates against the phytopathogenic fungi Pythium aphanidermatum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. e host fungus and Trichoderma were grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA) for a week at room temperature (28±2°C). Growth parameters in all dual cultures were read aſter 7 days. e plates containing only the target pathogenic organisms without Trichoderma were taken as control to evaluate the percent growth inhibition. Fungal Genomics & Biology F u n g a l G e n o m i c s & B i o l o g y ISSN: 2165-8056

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Page 1: Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genomics & Biology...Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genom Biol 2011, 1:1 DOI: 10.4172/2165-8056.1000103 A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR,

Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000103Fungal Genom BiolISSN: 2165-8056 FGB, an open access journal

Open AccessResearch Article

Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genom Biol 2011, 1:1 DOI: 10.4172/2165-8056.1000103

A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR, ITS) and bio-control efficacy of Trichoderma speciesMuthu Kumar A1* and Pratibha Sharma2

1Wood Biodegradation Division, Institute of Wood Science & Technology, Bangalore, India– 5600032Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi, India- 1100012

*Corresponding author: Muthu Kumar, Wood Biodegradation Division, Institute of Wood Science & Technology, Bangalore, India– 560003, E-mail: [email protected]

Received October 27, 2011; Accepted November 23, 2011; Published December 06, 2011

Citation: Muthu Kumar A, Sharma P (2011) A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR, ITS) and bio-control efficacy of Trichoderma species. Fungal Genom Biol 1:103. doi:10.4172/2165-8056.1000103

Copyright: © 2011 Muthu Kumar A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

AbstractTwelve isolates of Trichoderma harzianum and Trichoderma viride were assessed for their mycoparasitic effect

on phytopathogens Pythium aphanidermatum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Though T. harzianum isolates were more aggressive than T. viride isolates, the percent inhibitory effect among T. harzianum isolates did not vary much (80% to 86%). The inhibitory effect of T. viride isolates ranged from 50% to 80%; however, TvChen, Tv4, and TvNir were distinguishable from other T.viride isolates in exhibiting higher degree of antagonism. The dataset generated through molecular markers (RAPD and ISSR) showed a comparable output grouping the isolates Tv4, TvChen and TvNir in one cluster and all T. harzianum isolates in another cluster. Multiple nucleotide alignment of ITS 1 and ITS 2 region produced 100% homology among T. harzianum isolates whilst the nucleotide substitution at 62nd and 150th position of ITS 1 region and 27th and 40th position of ITS 2 region differentiated Tv4, TvChen and TvNir from other T. viride isolates. Genetic assessment could not establish substantial disparity among T. harzianum isolates whichwas comparable with its antagonism. The genetic distinctness of Tv4, TvChen and TvNir isolates authenticatedtheir higher degree of antagonism. It is obvious from the present study that genetic diversity analysis had a positivecorrelation with the antagonistic ability of Trichoderma isolates.

Keywords: Trichoderma; Antagonism; Molecular characters; RAPD;ISSR; ITS.

IntroductionPlant disease epidemics have created an ecologically unbalanced

system in modern agriculture. Deterrence of such epidemics for the most part achieved through use of chemical fungicides which have greater repercussion on environment and human health. Also progressive confrontation in a midst of pathogen resistance to accessible chemical plant protectants has engrossed the need of alternative methods of disease control.

Fungi of the genus Trichoderma are important biocontrol agents of several soil borne phytopathogens. The Trichoderma species serves as a potential alternative to chemical control measure and growing pathogen resistance crop cultivars. This may be attributable to their diverse metabolic capability and aggressively competitive nature [1,2]. Trichoderma use different mechanism for control of phytopathogens which includes mycoparasitism, out compete pathogenic fungi for nutrients, secretion for antibiotics and fungal cell wall degrading enzymes [3,4]. Trichoderma sp. includes a plethora of strains which differ in their innocuousness and effectiveness as biocontrol agents. Furthermore it is difficult to predict the degree of synergism and the behavior of a biocontrol agent in a natural pathosystem. The molecular technique like Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) developed by Williams et al. [5] has been used for genetic and taxonomic studies for several fungi including Trichoderma sp. [6,7]. Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) have been used as another effective method to characterize genetic variability. Since the evolutionary rate within ISSR is considerably higher than other types of DNA, the likelihood of finding polymorphism is greater compared to RAPD [8]. The Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region is perhaps the most widely sequenced DNA region in fungi. It has typically been most useful for molecular systematic study at species level, and even within species [9-12]. Kindermann et al. [13] attempted a first phylogenetic analysis of the whole genus of Trichoderma using sequence analysis of the ITS1 region

of rDNA. Thus the present study was to characterize the cryptic species of Trichoderma associated with biological control and to establish the relation between bioefficacy and molecular characters existed if any.

Materials and MethodsIsolation and identification of Trichoderma

Soil samples were collected from various experimental fields of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa, New Delhi. A total no. of twelve isolates of Trichoderma species was isolated and identified in specific selective medium. The identification of Trichoderma isolates were confirmed and deposited in Indian Type Culture Collection (ITCC), IARI, Pusa, New Delhi.

Confrontation assays in vitro

In vitro confrontations were studied by performing dual culture technique described by Dennis and Webster [14] was used to test the antagonistic ability of Trichoderma isolates against the phytopathogenic fungi Pythium aphanidermatum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. The host fungus and Trichoderma were grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA) for a week at room temperature (28±2°C). Growth parameters in all dual cultures were read after 7 days. The plates containing only the target pathogenic organisms without Trichoderma were taken as control to evaluate the percent growth inhibition.

Fungal Genomics & Biology Fung

al Genomics & Biology

ISSN: 2165-8056

Page 2: Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genomics & Biology...Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genom Biol 2011, 1:1 DOI: 10.4172/2165-8056.1000103 A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR,

Citation: Muthu Kumar A, Sharma P (2011) A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR, ITS) and bio-control efficacy of Trichoderma species. Fungal Genom Biol 1:103. doi:10.4172/2165-8056.1000103

Page 2 of 6

Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000103Fungal Genom BiolISSN: 2165-8056 FGB, an open access journal

Molecular characterization

The total genomic DNA was extracted from each isolate of Trichoderma based on Cetrimide Tetradecyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide (CTAB) mini extraction method of Crowhurst et al. [15] with modification.

Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis

RAPD-PCR conditions for Trichoderma isolates in the present investigations were standardized. Forty random primers of 10bp long each (10mer) of OPA and OPX (Operon Technologies, USA) series were used to amplify genomic DNA of the isolates. Out of these, sixteen primers which presented strong band resolution were chosen for the study viz., OPA 1, OPA 2, OPA 4, OPA 5, OPA 9, OPA 11, OPA 12, OPA 16, OPX 2, OPX 5, OPX 8, OPX 12, OPX 13, OPX 17, OPX 18 and OPX 20. Following the experiments for optimization of component concentrations, PCR amplification was carried out with 20ηg/µl of genomic DNA, 2mM MgCl2, 1U Taq DNA polymerase, 1X PCR buffer with 15mM MgCl2, 0.6µM decamer primers and 0.2mM of dNTP mix. The volume was made up to 25µl. PCR reactions were carried out in a Perkin Elmer Thermocycler under the conditions involving denaturation at 94oC for 2 minutes; 40 cycles of denaturation at 94oC for 1 minute, primer annealing at 35oC for 1 minute and primer extension at 72oC for 2 minutes; final extension step at 72oC for 4 minutes.

Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) analysis

The procedure described by Bornet et al. [16] with minor modifications was used for carrying out the PCR reactions for ISSR analysis. Ten primers were tested for amplification at different annealing temperatures of genomic DNA of the isolates. Out of these, eight primers viz., 5’(AG)8AT3’, 5’(AG)8AC3’, 5’(GA)8AC3’, 5’(GA)9T3’, 5’(GA)9AC3’, 5’BDB(GA)8T3’, 5’YT(CA)7T3’ and 5’YC(TG)7T3’ consisting of anchored ISSR gave satisfactory amplification and band resolution. The PCR amplification was carried out with 25ng of genomic DNA, 2.5mM MgCl2, 1U Taq DNA polymerase, 1X PCR buffer without MgCl2, 1μM ISSR primer and 0.2mM dNTP mix. The volume was made up to 25μl. PCR reactions were carried out in a Perkin Elmer GeneAmp 9600 thermocycler under the conditions involving denaturation at 94ºC for 7 minutes; 30 cycles of denaturation at 94ºC for 30 seconds, primer annealing at temperature specific to each primer for 45 seconds and primer extension at 72ºC for 2 minutes; final extension step at 72ºC for 7 minutes.

The PCR products of both RAPD and ISSR reactions were resolved on 1.4% agarose gel in 1X TBE buffer pre-stained with ethidium bromide (1µg/1ml) and electrophoresis was carried out at 90 volts for 1.5hrs followed by 70volts for 2hrs and visualized under UV light on a UV- Transilluminator. The gel was photographed using a Gel documentation system.

Data analysis

The amplification products were scored for the presence “1” and absence “0” and missing data as “9”. The genetic associations between isolates were evaluated by calculating the Jaccard’s similarity coefficient for pair wise comparisons based on the proportion of shared bands produced by the primers. The similarity matrix was subjected to cluster analysis by unweighted pair group method for arithmetic mean (UPGMA) and a dendrogram was generated. The computations were performed using the program NTSYS – PC. version. 2.02h [17].

The Jaccard’s similarity matrix was subjected to principal component analysis. This coordination method makes use of multidimensional solution of the observed relationships. PCA resolves complex relationships into a function of fewer and simpler factors. In this technique, the data matrix is derived from the distances (or similarities) between the operational taxonomic units. To simplify the description of these ‘clouds’ of points, the (principal) axes through the hyper-ellipsoid are calculated. The successive principal axes, representing the first major axis, the second axis etc., account for the greatest, the second greatest, etc. amount of variation.

Internal transcribed spacer region

The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the rDNA repeat from the 3’end of the 18s and the 5’end of the 28s gene were amplified using the two primers, ITS A and D which were synthesized on the basis of conserved regions of the eukaryotic rRNA gene (White et al. 1990). The PCR-amplification reactions were performed in a 50µl mixture containing 50mM KCl, 20mM Tris HCl (pH 8.4), 2.0mM MgCl2, 200µM of each of the four deoxynucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs), 0.2µM of each primer, 40ηg/µl of template and 2.5U of Taq polymerase. The cycle parameters included an initial denaturation at 94°C for 5 min, followed by 40 cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 1 min, primer annealing at 55°C for 2 min and primer extension at 72°C for 3 min and a final extension for 10 min at 72°C. Amplified products were separated on 1.2% agarose gel in TAE buffer, pre-stained with ethidium bromide (1µg/ml) and electrophoresis was carried out at 60 volts for 3

Isolate no: Species

Pythium aphanidermatum Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

Percent inhibition of mycelial growth (%) of pathogen

Mean mycelial growth (cm2) of Trichoderma

Percent inhibition of mycelial growth (%) of

pathogen

Mean mycelial growth (cm2) of Trichoderma

Th3 T.harzianum 86.4 23.04 90.2 25.00Th10 T.harzianum 83.0 21.16 88.1 24.01Th30 T.harzianum 78.3 18.49 85.0 23.04Th31 T.harzianum 80.0 20.25 74.5 16.81ThAg T.harzianum 74.5 16.81 72.7 14.40Tv2 T.viride 68.0 14.44 83.3 23.24Tv4 T.viride 75.0 16.81 80.5 18.49

Tv12 T.viride 70.0 15.21 74.7 16.81Tv15 T.viride 56.5 12.96 60.9 12.96Tv32 T.viride 65.8 14.44 50.5 12.25

TvChen T.viride 77.0 17.64 82.0 20.25

Table 1: Bioefficacy of Trichoderma isolates on Pythium aphanidermatum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.

Page 3: Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genomics & Biology...Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genom Biol 2011, 1:1 DOI: 10.4172/2165-8056.1000103 A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR,

Citation: Muthu Kumar A, Sharma P (2011) A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR, ITS) and bio-control efficacy of Trichoderma species. Fungal Genom Biol 1:103. doi:10.4172/2165-8056.1000103

Page 3 of 6

Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000103Fungal Genom BiolISSN: 2165-8056 FGB, an open access journal

hours in TAE buffer. One Kb ladder (MBI, Fermentas) was used as a marker. The gel was observed in a trans-illuminator over ultra violet light. The desired bands were cut from the gel with minimum quantity of gel portion using QIAGEN gel extraction kit.

Nucleotide sequencing and In silico analysis

The sequencing of the PCR product was carried out in automated Sequencer at Genome – Bio, Pune, India. Related sequences were searched using BLAST programme from the Gen-Bank database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/) [18]. The multiple sequence alignment and pairwise alignment were made using BioEdit version 5.09 [19]. The neighborhood-joining bootstrap tree was created using CLUSTAL W 1.6 matrix by the CLUSTAL X programme ver. 1.81 [20].

ResultConfrontation assay in vitro

The isolates of Trichoderma spp. viz., Th3, Th10, Th30, Th31 and ThAg belonging to T.harzianum; Tv2, Tv4, Tv12, Tv15, Tv32, TvChen and TvNir of T.viride were evaluated for their antagonistic ability against the phytopathogenic fungi Pythium aphanidermatum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum based on percent inhibition mycelial growth and mean mycelial growth (in cm2) (Table 1). The isolate Th3

of T.harzianum found to have the maximum inhibiting effect on the growth of P.aphanidermatum (86.45%) and S.sclerotiorum (90%) which directly corresponded to their mycelial growth rate of 23.04 cm2 and 25 cm2 against the target fungus. Among the T.viride isolates TvChen was more aggressive with 80% inhibiting effect on P.aphanidermatum and TvNir had 85% impact on S.sclerotiorum, closely followed by Tv4 in either of the cases.

Molecular characterization

Random amplified polymorphic DNA: The isolates of Trichoderma were subjected to RAPD analysis where 16 random primers resulted in robust and reproducible RAPD fragment patterns. The selected primers generated 112 RAPD bands and the size of the amplification products ranged from 250 bp to 900 bp. The percent polymorphism ranged from 60 to 100 with 4 primers OPA4, OPA5, OPX5 and OPX13 displayed 100% polymorphism (Plate 1). The genetic similarity between the isolates of Trichoderma was determined on the basis of Jaccard’s similarity coefficient. The mean value of the Jaccard’s similarity coefficient of the RAPD marker was 0.80. The highest genetic similarity was observed between the isolates Th31 and ThAg (80%) and the least was between the isolates Tv2 and Tv32 (30%). The dendrogram was generated using Unweighted Pair Group Method Arithmetic (UPGMA) based on NTSYS pc version 2.02i software resulted in three major clusters with isolates Tv2 and Tv32 as outliers (Figure 1). It was evident from the cluster analysis that the isolates representing to T.harzianum clustered in one group which had a similarity coefficient of 0.81 while isolates of T.viride segregated into two groups. Tv4, TvChen and TvNir formed second group with 78% similarity and Tv12 and Tv15 formed the third group which shared 82% similarity. The 3D depiction of principle components evidenced the close relatedness of T.harzianum isolates which formed into one subgroup and Tv4, TvChen and TvNir formed the other subgroup (Figure 2).

Inter simple sequence repeats

Fifteen ISSR primers were screened and eight of them giving satisfactory amplification and band resolution were taken for the

Plate 1: Amplification profile of Trichoderma isolates with RAPD primers. M- 1Kb ladder, 1-Th3, 2- Th10, 3-Th30, 4- Th31, 5-ThAg, 6-Tv2, 7- Tv4, 8-Tv12, 9-Tv15, 10- Tv32, 11- TvChen, 12-TvNir and 13-Hyp.

OPA 4

OPX 5 OPX 20

OPA 5M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Th3

Th10

Th30

Th31

ThAg

Tv4

TvChen

TvNir

Tv12

Tv15

Tv2

0.66 0.71 0.77 0.83 0.88

Figure 1: Jaccard’s similarity based dendrogram of Trichoderma isolates for RAPD marker.

Tv2

0.45

0.35

C3

0.26

0.16

-0.00-0.28

-0.10

0.07

0.25

0.43

C1

Tv15

Tv12

TvNir

Tv4

TvChen

Tv32

ThAg

Th31

Th10

Th3

0.180.05

C2

-0.070.31

Th30

Figure 2: 3-D plot depicting the principal components of Trichoderma isolates based on RAPD primers.

Page 4: Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genomics & Biology...Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genom Biol 2011, 1:1 DOI: 10.4172/2165-8056.1000103 A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR,

Citation: Muthu Kumar A, Sharma P (2011) A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR, ITS) and bio-control efficacy of Trichoderma species. Fungal Genom Biol 1:103. doi:10.4172/2165-8056.1000103

Page 4 of 6

Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000103Fungal Genom BiolISSN: 2165-8056 FGB, an open access journal

study. The selected primers generated 70 ISSR bands and the size of the amplification products ranged from 100 bp to 950 bp. The primer 5’ (GA) 8AC 3’ produced the maximum number of polymorphic loci (6) out of the total loci (7) followed by 5’ (GA) 9AC 3’ (6) (Plate 2). The percent polymorphism ranged from 40 to 86. The mean value of the Jaccard’s similarity coefficient of the ISSR marker was 0.76. The dendrogram based on the above data separated the isolates into two major clusters with similarities ranging from 76% to 94% (Figure 3). All the five T.harzianum isolates clustered into a single group sharing similarity around 80%. The second major cluster consisted isolates of T.viride, however these isolates formed two subgroups within the cluster. The isolates Tv2, T15 and Tv32 formed the first subgroup while Tv4, TvChen and TvNir formed the other. However Tv12 did not cluster with any of these two subgroups but stood separately with only 65% similarity with main branch. The 3D depiction of principle components reconfirmed the results obtained through dendrogram analysis (Figure 4).

Internal transcribed spacer

The universal primers ITS A and ITS D were used to amplify the internal transcribed spacer regions of rDNA yielding products of approximately 600bp as estimated by agarose gel electrophoresis

(Plate 3). The amplified PCR products was eluded and sequenced by automated sequencer which encompass ITS 1, ITS 2 and 5.8s rDNA gene and also 18s rDNA gene having base pairs ranging 35-49 bp at the 3’ end and 20-25 bp of the 5’ end of 28s rDNA. The sequences so obtained were subjected to BLAST search for its identity and confirmation, and subsequently submitted to National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) GenBank. The accession number for sequences of ITS 1 and ITS 2 region for the twelve isolates of Trichoderma. The multiple nucleotide alignment of ITS regions was analyzed using BioEdit programme. There was substantial disparity in length of ITS sequences between T.harzianum (199 bp) and T.viride (181 bp) isolates. The isolates of T.harzianum showed 100% homology in nucleotide sequence. Conversely T.viride isolates showed nucleotide divergence of 2.2% in ITS 1 and 2.26% in ITS 2 region. The isolates Tv4, TvChen and TvNir displayed 100% homology in nucleotide sequence, however they differed from other isolates at 62nd (A instead of C) and 150th (A instead of T) nucleotide position in ITS 1 region and 27th (T instead of G) and 40th (C instead of T) in ITS 2 region. To elucidate the genetic closeness of the Trichoderma isolates a phylogenetic tree was constructed based on sequence analysis of ITS 1 and ITS 2 regions using the neighbour-joining method in treecon for windows version 1.3b on sequences aligned using ClustalW 1.7 version (Figure 5 & 6). A random sequence was used as an out-group to demonstrate the situation of the root. Bootstrap analysis of ITS 1 region with 1000 bootstrap replication

M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

5’ (AG)8 AC 3’5’ (AG)8 AT 3’

5’ (GA)8 Ac 3’ 5’ Yc (TG)7 T3’

Plate 2: Amplification profile of Trichoderma isolates for ISSR primers. M- 1Kb ladder, 1-Th3, 2- Th10, 3-Th30, 4-Th31, 5-ThAg, 6-Tv2, 7- Tv4, 8-Tv12, 9-Tv15, 10- Tv32, 11- TvChen, 12-TvNir and 13-Hyp.

2500bp

600bp

M Th3 Th10 Th30 Th31 ThAg Tv2 Tv4 Tv12 Tv15 T32 TvChen TvNir Hyp

Plate 3: Amplification profile of ITS region with specific primers ITSA and ITSD.

Th3

Th10

Th30

Th31

ThAg

Tv2

Tv15

Tv32

Tv4

Tv Chen

Tv Nir

Tv 12

0.73 0.78 0.83 0.89 0.94Coefficient

Figure 3: Jaccard’s similarity based dendrogram of Trichoderma isolates for ISSR markers.

0.44

0.28

C1 0.12

-0.20

-0.04

0.46

0.35

C30.24

0.13

-0.02 Tv12 Th60

TvNir

Th 10Tv2

Tv32C2

-0.08TvChen

Th3

0.05Th Ag

0.19

Tv 15

Figure 4: 3-D plot depicting the principal components of the Trichoderma isolates based on the ISSR primers.

Page 5: Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genomics & Biology...Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genom Biol 2011, 1:1 DOI: 10.4172/2165-8056.1000103 A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR,

Citation: Muthu Kumar A, Sharma P (2011) A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR, ITS) and bio-control efficacy of Trichoderma species. Fungal Genom Biol 1:103. doi:10.4172/2165-8056.1000103

Page 5 of 6

Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000103Fungal Genom BiolISSN: 2165-8056 FGB, an open access journal

demonstrated two main branches. All the isolates of T.harzianum formed one group which supported with a bootstrap value of 99.9%. The other cluster consisted of T.viride isolates which separated into two subgroups supported by bootstrap value higher than 75%. The isolates Tv4, TvChen and TvNir formed one subgroup, while Tv15, Tv2 and Tv32 formed the other subgroup. Tv12 did not group with any of the two subgroups but stood separately in this cluster. The bootstrap analysis of ITS 2 region also showed similar results, however Tv12 which stood separately in ITS 1 clustered into one of the subgroups consisting of Tv15, Tv2 and Tv32. This grouping was supported by more than 70 percent bootstrap values.

DiscussionIn pursuit for a probability of corroborating the mycoparasitic

antagonism ability of Trichoderma with respect to their molecular characters the current study was undertaken. Such corroboration will certainly be a needful aspect in elucidating the molecular mechanism involved in mycoparasitic antagonism. Dual petri-plate marriage of Trichoderma with pathogen Pythium aphanidermatum, and similarly with Sclerotinia sclerotiorum endorsed the mycoparasitic antagonism of T.harzianum and T.viride. T.harzianum isolates were more aggressive than T.viride in their antagonistic effect which ranged between 80% to 86% against P. aphanidermatum and 83% to 90% against S. sclerotiorum, on the other hand T.viride isolates ranged between 56% to 81% against P. aphanidermatum and 50% to 80% against S. sclerotiorum. However the percent inhibition of mycelial growth of Tv4, TvChen and TvNir was around 80% which was comparable with antagonistic ability of T.harzianum.

The molecular markers could not establish any variation within T.harzianum isolates instead grouped all the isolates into one cluster. The sequence identity matrix of ITS 1 and ITS 2 region showed 100% homology among these isolates of T.harzianum. None of the markers were able to identify distinct variation among T.harzianum isolates and also it is prominent that these isolates exhibited less variation in their antagonism. Therefore it can be interpreted that these isolates taken for study had no much dissimilarity among them genetically.

The RAPD markers characters divided the isolates of T.viride into two subgroups, but here Tv4, TvChen and TvNir formed a single group. Though RAPD marker formed 80% polymorphism it failed to differentiate Tv2 and Tv32. Singh et al. [21] reported that RAPD primers exhibited both inter and intra specific variation in the isolates and were able to distinguish the pathogenic isolates T.harzianum and T.virens causing green mould diseases in cultivated mushroom which was in conformity with our results. Though RAPD analysis provided good discrimination within and between species it is generally not considered a robust enough technique because of its poor reproducibility.

The ISSR technique which is more reliable reproduced similar dendrogram pattern as that of RAPD marker grouping TV4, TvChen and TvNir separately. The isolates Tv2 and Tv32 which stood as outliers in RAPD clubbed to form a subgroup, but Tv12 stood separately within the main branch. The combined ISSR and RAPD dendrogram also authenticated the above results.

The nucleotide sequence alignment of ITS 1 and ITS 2 region revealed the presence of hotspots with nucleotide substitution at four positions supported the distribution of Tv4, TvChen and TvNir into one subgroup. The dendrogram pattern obtained through ISSR was

Tv4

TvChen

TvNir

TV15

Tv2

Tv32

TV12

TH3

Th10

Th30

Th31

ThAg

Random

865

966

754

792

7671000

1000

1000

999

999

Figure 5: Genetic relationships of Trichoderma isolates based on analysis of ITS 1 sequences.

Tv15

Tv2

Tv32

Tv12

Tv4

TvChen

TvNir

Th3

Th10

Th30

Th31

ThAg

Random

530

531

700

999

859

940

667

667

667

1000

Figure 6: Phylogenetic relationships of Trichoderma isolates based on analysis of ITS 2 sequences.

Page 6: Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genomics & Biology...Muthu Kumar et al., Fungal Genom Biol 2011, 1:1 DOI: 10.4172/2165-8056.1000103 A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR,

Citation: Muthu Kumar A, Sharma P (2011) A study on corroboration between DNA markers (RAPD, ISSR, ITS) and bio-control efficacy of Trichoderma species. Fungal Genom Biol 1:103. doi:10.4172/2165-8056.1000103

Page 6 of 6

Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000103Fungal Genom BiolISSN: 2165-8056 FGB, an open access journal

almost indistinguishable from the phylogenetic tree obtained from ITS 1 and ITS 2 sequences. This authenticates the soundness of our perception that the bioefficacy of these three isolates were manifested at the molecular level which made them to distinguish from other T.viride isolates. Conversely Goes et al. (2002) reported that therewas no relationship between the polymorphism showed by theTrichoderma isolates and their hardness against R. solani based onRAPD marker. Similar kind of result was reported by Shalini et al. [22]and Shanmugam et al. [23]. However the results of molecular markersemployed in this present study was complementary and confirmatoryin nature which substantiates our corroboration between bioefficacy ofTrichoderma isolates and molecular characters.Acknowledgement

I thank Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, India for awarding senior research fellowship with financial support and Indian Agricultural Research Institute for its facilities provided to accomplish the research.

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